The United States
Congress has stepped in to find nearly $300m in humanitarian and
reconstruction funds for Afghanistan after the Bush administration
failed to request any money in the latest budget.

One mantra from the Bush
administration since it launched its military campaign in Afghanistan
16 months ago has been that the US will not walk away from the Afghan
people.

President Bush has even
suggested a Marshall plan for the country, and the Afghan leader, Hamid
Karzai, will visit Washington later this month.

Washington has pledged not to forget Afghanistan

But in its budget proposals for 2003, the White House did not
explicitly ask for any money to aid humanitarian and reconstruction
costs in the impoverished country.

The chairman of the
committee that distributes foreign aid, Jim Kolbe, says that when he
asked administration officials why they had not requested any funds, he
was given no satisfactory explanation, but did get a pledge that it
would not happen again.

'Too early'

A spokesman for the US
Agency for International Development, which distributes the money, says
the reason they did not make a request was that when budgetary
discussions began in 2002, it was too early to say how much money they
would need.

Jim Kolbe has expressed surprise at the administration's oversight.

The US will spend over $16bn in foreign aid this year.

The main beneficiaries will be Israel, Jordan and a number of anti-Aids programmes.

However, Mr Kolbe says
that should there be a military conflict in Iraq, he believes the US
will have to find billions more, not only to help Iraq, but also
Turkey, Jordan and Israel.